Song in my Head

This is kind of like the voices in my head but it is a song that has been playing continuously through my brain specifically a song chorus. It is the song "It's A Great Day to be Alive" sung by Travis Tritt. I wasn't able to embed it in my blog so here is the YouTube link. Basically the chorus is

And it's a great day to be alive
I know the sun's still shinin' when I close my eyes
There's some hard times in the neighborhood
But why can't every day be just this good

The funny thing is it has been really rainy and stormy here. Maybe subconsciously I want it to be sunny. Here's to hoping you get this song stuck in your head to.

Egg Craft

I saw this craft on the Crafty Crow. The directions are found here. The Diva gave it a shot. They turned out great. It was a fast craft with items on hand.

Tales of the Thrift

I had this undeniable urge to organize in the knickknack aisle. Is that wrong? These frogs needed to be reunited. I like items that are the same grouped together.

Flower Power

The Diva made this daffodil. It is the classic egg carton approach. I saw the idea here. The best part is that I had all the materials on hand.

We also made flower power rings. The idea is from "Martha". You have to watch the video. I loved the PipeCleaner Lady. She is a hoot. These rings make me happy. The Diva did a fab job on making these with very little assistance. I heard she started a flower power craze at her school. Bring on Spring!

Dollar Store Challenge- Pipe Cleaner Wreath

Living with Lindsay is having a $5 dollar store challenge. Here are the rules. Check out the challenge partcipants here. This is what I came up with. This is about 154 pipe cleaners later.


I purchased 1 wreath and 4 packs of pipe cleaners from the dollar store. My small Dollar Tree Store didn't have the wreath so I had to go to a bigger town's Dollar Tree. This wreath comes in two sizes and I used the smaller size. I used the pipe cleaner ring tutorial from Martha . I used the same method on this wreath. Instead of wrapping the pipe cleaner around your finger I wrapped it around the individual branches in the wreath. This was a little challenging to get all 6 pipe cleaners for each flower through the branches. There are a few flowers(smaller) that I was only able to get 4 pipe cleaners through. Making the flowers is a little addicting. I think it turned out really cute.

Just a Little Adventure

Big E and I went to check out Tennant Lake. We went up in the tower. It is a lot of fun to use binoculars.

We decided to walk the path to the lake. The path to the lake was very wet because the path is literally in the wetlands. Though we both thought it was fun to cross the water on the makeshift bridge. Well, Big E thought it was a blast.

A frog managed to startle us. I think we both jumped a little. Most of the boardwalk was under water so we didn't get very far but it was fun anyways. We are going to come back when we can go farther on the path.

How to Make a Dragon

The Diva with Queen Dragon

We made Dragon puppets yesterday morning and they were hit. I have been reading to Chuckles the book, "How to Train a Dragon." That book is being made into a movie. So, Chuckles has been wanting to make dragons. I found a dragon face template and they colored them in. Then we glued the face to a construction paper circle. The whole face/construction circle we glued to a paper plate. Then we glued it to a paper bag.

Big E's Dragon
Later, they went back and added some wings. I loved that both boys and girls wanted to do this craft. Chuckles with his two dragons.

***edited to add link to dragon face

Rainbow Cupcakes

I was inspired by the rainbow cupcakes I saw out in blog land. For the life of me, I can't figure out which blog I saw it on. The same idea is found here. I decided this would make a great afternoon snack for the kids. I used a yellow cake mix and my colors were yellow, purple (brown), red, and green. They looked really cool when cut open.

They disappeared rather quickly so I think they were a hit.

Linky Love

Don't you just stumble across something that makes you go -"WHAT THE HECK?". This made me do that. There is a lady that is vying to be the World's Fattest Woman. Seriously, why would anyone strive for that. Along that lines in a much better way, I have started a weight loss blog about my "JOURNEY". The fact that I just typed journey made me laugh to myself. It more like my misadventures. Check it out. It is called Shedding the Fat Woman Cape. It is a start. I am going to put it on my blog roll.

I have an endless fascination with the Duggar Family. I can't figure out if I admire them or just think they are a little on the crazy side. I thought this was an interesting read about someone who left the quiverful movement and their take on the Duggar Family.

Lastly, I am fascinated about all the lovely Spring wreaths I see on everyone blogs. This one and this one are really tempting me to give wreath making a shot.

Happy St Patrick's Day

My Lucky Guys - Chuckles and #1 Son

Some Rainbow Art by Chuckles

This shirt sums up Chuckles perfectly

Rainbow Card

The Diva has been working on this card for a couple mornings in a row. It is based on the idea found here. We punched holes in the card (adult) with a seam ripper. Then the sewing was easy. The Diva did all the sewing. It turned out great.

Leprechaun Gold Hunt

It is a tradition at my house when I have my before school kids to do a Leprechaun gold hunt. As I won't have them on St Patty's this year. I decided to do the hunt today. Here are the details on our hunt last year. The picture at the top is the box where the Leprechaun stashed the gold. Inside there were bags filled with chocolate gold coins, a shamrock necklace, and a lucky penny. Clues were found in the refrigerator, under the table, inside shoes. attached to my backside of car mirror. I drove all around the country with it still attached. I am cool like that. This all led to the discovery of the Leprechaun's secret stash. I used the same clues as last year found at JesseKate Design Blog.

Curly Bird

I think I have been sitting too much in doctor's offices or something. I saw this bird in family fun and I had to make it. Is that a little sick? I hung him on my china hutch.

Feliz Cumpleanos!

Happy 5th Birthday Princess of Quite Alot. My friend is not only turning Cinco (5) but she is also STAR OF THE WEEK at preschool. I hope you have a very, very Happy Birthday!

Shamrock

The Diva is such a good sport. Yesterday, we practiced drawing shamrocks. It took us a few practice attempts.

I think her Shamrock rocks. :) We used the tutorial at Art Projects for Kids.

Goodwill Debacle

Can you spot the difference?

Mrs Epi and I hit Goodwill on Tuesday morning. We heard a hot tip that Tuesday morning is the best time to go thrifting. We were not disappointed. We scored these lovely sweatshirts that extremely popular with the tween crowd. You can't go wrong for $8 especially since they retail for $40. We were patting ourselves on the back. We couldn't believe our luck. We thought maybe they were slightly irregular as there were a bunch there. However, THERE was only 1 problem that we discovered after we purchased instead of saying Ferndale Eagles, IT said FERNDNALE EAGLES. Needless to say our children won't be wearing said sweatshirts out and about.

If this looks like trouble,

If it looks like trouble, it is. I heard a noise coming from upstairs this morning. I went to investigate and this is what I found - double trouble!

Another Book off the Book It 2010 list

"...if what we choose to do with our lives won't make a story meaningful, it won't make life meaningful either." Donald Miller

I read What I Learned While Editing My Life-A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller.This was on my top 5 books to read for 2010. This was a recommendation from Ali Edwards Blog. I loved it and this book also fit in with My One Little Word for 2010. My word was "Live" as I wanted to Live life to the fullest and really embrace things instead of backing away from difficult situations or challenges. This book is all about telling your story or creating your story. A while back I got this vinyl saying from Treasure of Memories Scrapbooking, " Make Your Life- A Story Worth Telling." This so fits with my one little word and this book was part of that journey too. I am reinventing my story too and making some different choices so I could really relate to Donald Miller. I want to live a good story. This is the kind of book that I find myself rethinking about during the odd moments of my life.

edited to add: this post is linked at Life as a Mom and her Book it 2010 Linky Party

Eight is GREAT

Today is

the DIVA's 8th Birthday

Yesterday, we had a pre-birthday celebration with a donut cake with 8 candles . Everything about being 8 is GREAT!

Dollar Store Challenge

Living with Lindsay has issued a Dollar Store Challenge. She wants to see what you can create with a $5 budget and the Dollar Store by March 25. More details are found on Living with Lindsay. Are you up for the challenge? Hmm, I'll have to see what I come up with.